The Gay & Lesbian Review

The Gay & Lesbian Review

WORLDWIDE

March–April 2014 • VOLUME XXI, NUMBER 2

WORLDWIDE The Gay & Lesbian Review ® PO Box 180300, Boston, MA 02118

C ONTENTS

Editor-in-Chief and Founder R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R . ____________________________ Literary Editor M ARTHA E. S TONE Poetry Editor D AVID B ERGMAN Associate Editors J IM F ARLEY L EWIS G ANNETT C HRISTOPHER H ENNESSY

F EATURES

Notes on Camp—and Anti-Camp 10 B RUCE L A B RUCE

Fifty years after Sontag’s salvo, camp has conquered pop culture

Drag Kings by Any Other Name 14 C LARE W ALL

M ICHAEL S CHWARTZ Contributing Writers

Female cross-dressing from Joan of Arc to Gizell Timpani

DANIEL BURR , COLIN CARMAN , ALLEN EL - LENZWEIG , CHRIS FREEMAN , CASSANDRA LANGER , ANDREW HOLLERAN , JIM NAW - ROCKI , JAMES POLCHIN , VERNON ROSARIO

Vampires Are Us 17 R ICHARD S. P RIMUTH

Dracula and his kind have been a gay metaphor for over a century The Lives and Times of Harry Chess The first gay comic hero (b. 1965) was a man’s man in all senses James Purdy’s World of Extremes His short stories add new nooks to the novelist’s dark expanses Truth and Reconciliation Terrence McNally’s Mothers and Sons revisits that epic gay bond

Contributing Artist C HARLES H EFLING

22 M ICHAEL J. M URPHY

Advertising Manager S TEPHEN H EMRICK Webmasters H ENRI L ANGLAIS & B OB W ALKER ___________________ Board of Directors S TEWART C LIFFORD ( CHAIRMAN ) A RT C OHEN W ARREN G OLDFARB ( SENIOR ADVISOR ) D ONALD G ORTON ( CLERK ) D IANE H AMER R OBERT H ARDMAN R OBERT N ICOSON R ICHARD S CHNEIDER , J R . ( PRESIDENT ) M ARTHA E. S TONE T HOMAS Y OUNGREN ( TREASURER )

25 M ICHAEL S CHWARTZ

32 R AYMOND -J EAN F RONTAIN

R EVIEWS

L EWIS G ANNETT D ALE W. B OYER

Sean Strub – Body Counts: A Memoir of Politics, Sex, AIDS, and Survival 35

36

Tatamkhulu Afrika — Bitter Eden

I RENE J AVORS

Nigel Simeone, editor — The Leonard Bernstein Letters 37 Edward White — The Tastemaker: Carl van Vechten... 39

Friends of The Review

B ENEFACTORS L EADERSHIP C IRCLE Henry van Ameringen

R ICHARD C ANNING R OSEMARY B OOTH

Catherine Reid — Falling into Place: An Intimate Geography of Home 40

Eric Anderson/ R.Beck Anonymous Steve Frasheur Seth Grosshandler

Robert Hardman Christopher Lirely Robert Nicoson William Percy Edward Godbersen Warren Goldfarb Patrick Gourley John Hudson Michael Jarvis Dick Land Mark Mullin Daniel Pavsek Jan Schoenhaus Kenneth Trapp

R ICHARD M. B ERRONG

42 43 43 44 45

R. B. Parkinson — A Little Gay History

J EAN R OBERTA

Mitzi Szereto — The Wilde Passions of Dorian Gray Vinton Rafe McCabe — Death in Venice, California

S PONSORS

A NTHONY G UY P ATRICIA T ERRI S CHLICHENMEYER

Anonymous Robert Black James Brogan Robert Cloud Art Cohen Gary Domann Martin Duberman

Liza Monroy — The Marriage Act Erin G. Carlston — Double Agents

C HARLES G REEN

C ASSANDRA L ANGER

A Queer History of Fashion — Book and Exhibit at the FIT Museum 48

49 50

B RIEFS

Clinton Elliott Irv Englander Robert Giron

C OLIN C ARMAN

Elton John — The Diving Board (album)

S UPPORTERS

Richard Alther Randall Arndt Margaret Bachtel Stephen Berg Bjorn Bjorklund Donald Blackford David Lloyd Brown Stewart Clifford Michael Cunningham John Desmarteau MD Suzanne Dreyfus

James W. Hendrick Jr. Telaireus Herrin Barbara Hoffman James-Henry Holland Kent Johnson PhD Gary Jung Rob Kvidt Stewart Landers Richard Malmsheimer James Moore Michael O’Connell III Donald Ott Theodore Pietras Charles Popper James Richardson Ron Seidle Laurence Senelick Charles Silverstein MD Alexander Snell Dennis Sondker Ron Suleski & Jonghyun John Tederstrom Robert Tinkler Nan Williamson

P OEMS & D EPARTMENTS

Guest Opinion — Mandela Eulogies Ignored His GLBT Activism 5 J AMES P ATTERSON C ORRESPONDENCE 6 BTW 8 R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R . Poem — “after Resume” 31 M ICHAEL M ONTLACK

G. Dryvynsyde Alfred Duhamel David Fertik

Poem — “Provincetown 2013” 38 J UDITH S AUNDERS Poem — “No Geese This Evening” 41 H ELENA K AMINSKI Poem — “Isherwood Journals” 45 B RYAN B ORLAND C ULTURAL C ALENDAR 46

Robert Florand Thomas Gerber Sterling Giles/Rudy Kikel

Bill Gorodner James Gother Robert Greene Paul Grzella Dennis Hall Diane Hamer Robert Hellwig

The Gay & Lesbian Review/ WORLDWIDE ® (formerly The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, 1994-99) is published bimonthly by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational corporation located in Boston, Mass. Subscription Rates , U.S.: $35.70 per year (6 issues). Canada and Mexico: $45.70(US). All other countries: $55.70(US). All non-U.S. sent via air mail. Call 617-421-0082. Back issues available for $10 each. All correspondence sent in a plain envelope marked “GLR.” © 2014 by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc. All rights reserved.

Website: www.GLReview.org All Inquiries: 617-421-0082

March–April 2014

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